In 2024, PayPal’s Product and Design organizations lacked a program management function. Teams managed their workstreams in many different ways, lacking any consistency or ability to see who worked on what and its status.

Diving into ambiguity, I developed foundation building process while jumping in to actively build and manage teams backlogs. I set up grooming and prioritization rhythms, built design backlogs. I collaborated closely with product and engineering to understand what they needed from design and to advocate for what design needed from its stakeholders.

We iterated on our rhythms, activities, and artifacts to develop a process that improved transparency, predictability, and accountability. Below are examples of some of the process and frameworks put in place. This foundation we codified into a single ‘Ways of Working’ set of artifacts. Its a toolkit for new managers and designers and part of the onboarding process for our organization.